It was the birthday of an ex. and she was memorable - such days need to be celebrated by going out and having a rollicking time!
Also, a writer on MS - Ms. Angel25 has been writing stories about a certain cowboys and such - all the best to you both sweetie - her talks got me interested in the breed and when The Worlds Toughest Cowboys came to town for their 2008 championship finals, I was too curious not to check them out.
There were 8 cowboys taking part in 3 contests
1) Bareback horse riding
2) Saddle Bronc
3) Bull Riding
In all 3 events, points are awarded for riding the animal for 8 seconds - now for those thinking thats a pittance, here is a news flash - riding these unpredictable animals is so dangerous that even professionals can get thrown off in less than 1 second at times. Sometimes that even get broken bones and can even die!
In the first event, the cowboys ride a 1100 pound horse with one hand wedged in a suitcase style handle. The rider cannot touch the horse with the other free arm. The wilder the ride, more are the points in the rider's kitty.
In the second event, the horse is similar, except that this time its saddled. Again - cannot touch the animal with the free hand. The rider holds on to the animal with a thick rein attached to the horses halter. The ride has to be a fluid and controlled one to get max. points. If the rider timing aint tuned to the horse's bucking style, he's gonna crash!
The third discipline is what I was the most interested in! In this event the cowboys ride an 1800 pound bull! The cowboy will have one hand to grasp a flat braided rope around the bull's chest and has to sit up on the beast using his free hand to adjust and counter the beast's wild bucking and thrashing! A slight mis-timing and boom! the rider is on the floor and has to now fight horns!
In all three sports, the rider has good chances of getting kicked, trampled and the only way to get off the animal is to either jump on another horse or to get bucked-off the animal is a controlled fashion!
The event was hosted by Jagermeister and the winner would get his own Jager Ranch and bragging rights!
The event was a lot of fun - the finals were disappointing as the two finalists were thrown off their animals in 5 and 3 seconds and yet the 3 second guy was declared the winner with the spectators left scratching their heads followed by a lot of booing and hissing!
As the earlier competition was quite entertaining and fun to see - I didnt care too much to boo as having had a taste of the sport - I was happy!
There was a Trent Tomlinson concert after the cowboy event and I admit, it was a lot of fun to see a live country concert! Infact the crowd was having such a good time at this small event and the energy was so high, I'm excited enough to go to another live event soon!!
The singer is pretty good and his songs are typically country and about whiskey, smoking, girls who break hearts, family, good-times!! The guy and his band rocked the place!! I liked it when he went into the crowd and shook hands with people, got on the fence and in the crowd - thats the way to spread the energy around!
The drummer of the band was very good to watch as he twirled up his sticks in the middle of the songs without missing a beat! He was a true rocker! It was also interesting to see an african american in a country music band!!
Hereis a clip of the group in another event that was hosted in Raleigh NC (I didnt go there) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAg5oOnDR7o
You can spot the drummer at the end of the clip, though not in action.
Trent singing "Angels like her"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2d221IeET7I&feat ure=related
Some other clips
http://www .youtube.com/watch?v=khf-bsA9Qyg
http://www.youtube.com/wa tch?v=5oWTvXni2lQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbA6gOmcM AM&feature=related
The best part was the after party! I went to my regular joint and guess what! They have put up a mechanical bull in that place! Now just put a group of drunk girls, and guys in a room with a mechanical bull and imagine the fun you can have with it! The party was wild! For my continued existance on this site, events that happened here are best left unsaid.
:D
Here's a toast to you - happy birthday sweetie .... wherever you are, hope you had a blast on your birthday ... I know I did!
XOXO
!! Spike !!